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Should You Accept Or Refuse An Offer On Your Home?

 Accept Or Refuse An Offer On Your Home

Selling your Nanaimo home? If so, you have likely found it to be a little more stressful than you had anticipated. Not only is your home your most valuable asset but you are selling your home during a pandemic fuelled, sellers-market.

In many ways it is a pretty heady time for home-sellers. There are so many buyers out there competing for properties that you will likely see an offer or even multiple offers coming in very quickly. However, a home seller will likely become a home buyer once they sell their home. This means that, if this sellers’ market keeps up, you will find yourself trying to buy your next home in an extremely competitive environment.

It is important that you get as much money as possible for your home. The price you agree on with a buyer, along with closing costs- including real estate commissions, legal fees, and mortgage discharge- will determine how much money you walk away with.

If your home does not attract multiple offers you may receive an offer that is less than desirable. Should this happen; what are your options?

You can counter back at a price you are comfortable with or you can refuse the offer altogether.

Your Realtor has helped you price your home in line with what is perceived as market value. Market value is determined by what comparable houses in your area are selling for and is a price that most people would consider fair. Any offer for an amount considerably less than market value is likely what is considered a “low ball offer”.

Many potential buyers plan on negotiating a price by starting low. Their hope is that you will counter back and then it may be possible for them to negotiate a lower price. The problem with these offers is that often the seller is put off and does not want to deal with the buyer. These types of offers can often put the buyers at a disadvantage,

Here are some other reasons a seller may be reluctant to work with an offer.

1. Buyer requires financing.

Interest rates are low these days but getting finance is not always easy for buyers. If the seller has any reason to doubt the funding of the potential buyer, then they could turn down the offer.

2. Getting a better offer

In competitive markets, sellers will often wait until they have several offers submitted before accepting one and rejecting the rest. The listing Realtor will set a date and time for reviewing the offers and will not review any that have come in prior to that date & time.

While you do not always have to reject a lowball offer or an offer with uncertain contingencies it is a good idea to discuss them with your Realtor to review your options.

Should a seller counteroffer on a low offer or just refuse it?

Some sellers will outright refuse a low offer if they feel offended by it. Sometimes its hard not to be offended by a low offer as most people have deep attachments to their family homes.

The best solution, in my opinion, is to discuss it with your Realtor. If your home is getting a lot of attention from Buyer’s, then you may want to hold off looking at offers until you see what other interest there is out there. However, if your home has been sitting on the market for a while without receiving an offer, you may want to counter back on the offer.

Sometimes the Buyer just is not the right fit for your house in which case you can choose to just not respond back to the offer and let it go. In fact, sometimes that works in your favour. If the buyer is seriously interested in your house, they may choose to rewrite the offer at a more reasonable price.

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